Disclaimer: I don't own ML.
Thanks to KaseyKay17, Shiranai Atsune, Cals1686, bunnywabbit29, yellow 14 and The Keeper of Worlds for your reviews :)
"Die already!" Alya growls, furiously mashing the buttons on her controller.
"No can do, babe!" Nino mashes just as hard, trying desperately to keep up with his girlfriend. But she's on the warpath and is out for blood, so there's absolutely no chance of him getting any ground on her, and he's soon utterly crushed by Alya, who whoops and punches the air.
"I never knew that Alya was so ruthless at Ultimate Mecha Strike III," Adrien comments, his voice slightly warped by the phone speakers. Marinette just laughs.
"Why do you think I never play against her?" she says, turning her phone so that she can see Adrien's face while still letting him see the gameplay. "She's terrifying."
"And I can never beat Marinette!" Alya snarls, already loading a rematch with Nino, who looks like he'd rather be akumatised thrice over than go up against her again.
"That's because she's super talented!" Adrien says. Marinette beams at the compliment, idly marvelling at how she can smile now at something said by Adrien that would've turned her into a hot, gooey mess only weeks ago. And it's not like he doesn't still make her insides shiver, but the more she focuses on being friendly without the looming pressure of asking him out, the softer those shivers become. Part of her misses the hot intensity of her feelings for him, but really, would she be interacting with him in this way if she was still a disaster around him? She's become better friends with him over the past few weeks than she had in all the months of crushing so hard on him that she could barely talk to him. Hell, she's even stroking his hair consistently now.
Who knows? Maybe those feelings will bear fruit someday. But as it is, Tikki had been totally right; she's far closer to Adrien as friends than when she'd been stressing over asking him out. And if something does happen between the, at least she's got a solid foundation of friendship to build on.
"I wish you could have come," she sighs. "It's not really a sleepover if you're not actually sleeping over."
"Father was pretty firm," Adrien says, his smile fading. "And I didn't want to push it. There's a line between teenage rebellion and being outright disrespectful."
"It's probably wise to pick your battles," Marinette agrees. "But still. Now Nino has to sleep on the floor alone because Mum and Dad are on the whole "no boys and girls together!" thing." She makes a face and Adrien laughs.
"Can't we talk about this?" Nino pleads. Alya just gives the most terrifying laugh that Marinette's ever heard and proceeds to crush Nino, who drops his remote and throws his hands up.
"I think that's the end of that," Marinette says, her lips twitching at how Alya immediately loses her scary competitiveness and tries to cajole Nino into hugging her when he's looking at her as though she's an akuma. "Maybe we should do something that you can actually do with us."
"I don't mind watching," Adrien says. "I mean, I wish I was there, but this is better than just sitting in silence." He smiles at Marinette. "And at least I get to talk to you."
Marinette grins back, wondering why his face suddenly morphs into a look of horror.
"Uh – and Alya and Nino – when they're not playing their game – not that it's not nice talking to you –"
A voice in the background on Adrien's end halts his rambling in its tracks. He grimaces and drops his phone on his pillow, giving Marinette a wonderful view of his high bedroom ceiling as his footsteps cross over to his door.
"Adrien, your father has requested that you practice your current piece –"
"But I've already done my piano practice today!"
"Yes, but your father is dissatisfied with your progress. He feels that you should practice the piece a little more until you reach his standards."
"Seriously? He won't let me go to my friend's sleepover and now he's not even letting me be there by phone?"
"If it was up to me, I would be perfectly happy for you to continue talking to your friends. But it's not up to me."
Marinette desperately wants to jump in and say something but doing so will only make things worse for Adrien. Plus, he probably doesn't even realise that he's got an audience of not just Marinette but also Nino and Alya, whose bickering has ceased so that they can listen in too.
"You know what? No."
"Adrien –"
"All I ever do is practice my piano and fencing and Chinese and model for him! And he can't even let me hang out with my friends for one night!"
"Adrien, this is so unlike you –"
"What, like going to school was unlike me?"
"Those were exceptional circumstances –"
"Leave me alone."
"But –"
"I don't care what Father says! Tell him that it was all me and you tried your best. Just…leave me alone for the rest of the night."
"Adrien –"
"Leave me alone!"
There's silence for a few moments. Marinette bites her lip and exchanges a glance with Alya and Nino, who look just as worried as she does.
"I'll tell your father that you're coming down with something and feel too unwell," Nathalie finally says.
"Thank you, Nathalie!"
"But be warned, he will expect more effort in the next few nights to make up for this."
"I don't care. Really. Just…thank you."
There's the sound of the door closing, followed by footsteps that gradually grow louder. Marinette has a brief bout of motion sickness when the phone is picked up, making the screen blur and move wildly until it refocuses on Adrien's miserable face.
"You okay, dude?" Nino says. Adrien smiles, but it's a weak effort.
"Sorry you guys had to hear that. Guess I didn't hang up like I thought."
"What Nino said," Marinette says when she notices how pale Adrien is. "Are you okay?"
"Honestly? I think I'm about two seconds from a panic attack. I can't remember the last time I've put my foot down like that."
"Well, are you sure you can't make it over here?" Alya says, while Marinette's stomach lurches. "You shouldn't have to be stuck there with a borderline panic attack just 'cause your dad's on a power trip."
"I wish I could. But there's no way out without my father seeing except through my window, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't survive the jump."
Marinette briefly entertains the idea of turning into Ladybug and rescuing Adrien, but she has to force herself to think clearly. There's no way she could explain how Ladybug found out about this so fast, not to mention that there's no way she could explain her extended absence to Alya and Nino. Hell, she already pushes that enough during akuma attacks, and at least those are a convenient excuse. Her powerlessness right now makes her clench her fists. What good is she as Ladybug if she can't help those who need it?
"Anyway," Adrien says, pasting a grin on his face, "I'll be fine so long as I can talk to you guys."
"Do you at least know how to focus on your breathing?" Marinette says. "Five seconds in, hold for three, out for seven. Do it now, while we're here."
Adrien immediately obeys, sucking in a deep breath while Marinette counts to five, holding it, then releasing it while she counts to seven. After a minute or so, Adrien closes his eyes and sags.
"Thanks, Mari," he mumbles. Marinette smiles at him.
"Any time!"
"I think I'll be okay now if I keep my mind off it. What should we do next?"
"Anything but truth or dare," Nino shudders. "Marinette and Alya get ruthless when they gang up on you."
Marinette and Alya laugh together. The mood's slowly starting to creep back to where it was before, but Marinette still can't help but wish that there was more she could do for her friend than leaving him in his prison-like house and only having him over via phone call.
The next day, Adrien's not at school, although Marinette's not totally worried because he'd texted her beforehand to say that he's being made to stay home due to Nathalie's excuse of him coming down with something. Still, though, she can't help but worry a little and that, mixed with her feelings of powerlessness, leaves her distracted all day. Especially since he'd also said that his phone was probably being taken for the day while he had lessons at home, so he hasn't messaged her since his initial text and is therefore most likely unreachable.
"Marinette." Ms Bustier's voice snaps Marinette out of her haze. Marinette jumps and meets Ms Bustier's eyes guiltily. "Please pay attention to the lesson."
"Sorry!" Marinette says. Ms Bustier's face softens.
"Are you feeling unwell? Do you need to be excused from class?"
"I…actually, now that you mention it, I do feel a bit sick." It's not like Marinette's lying; her stomach really is rolling, and she hasn't been able to concentrate all morning. Ms Bustier just can't possibly know that it's from anxiety over her friend rather than an actual illness.
"Alya, could you take Marinette to the nurse?" Ms Bustier says. "Marinette, if you still feel unwell after having a rest then please go home."
"I'll take her, Ms Bustier," Chloé declares. The class goes dead silent. Ms Bustier is the first to recover.
"Thank you, Chloé, that's very nice of you," she says.
"I know," Chloé says rather smugly. "I'm being super nice now. Come on, Dupain-Cheng."
Although Marinette doesn't trust Chloé at all, she can't really say no when she's the one showing Chloé how to be nice. So, rather than kick up a fuss, she swallows her words, packs up her things, and follows Chloé out of the classroom.
"What's the deal, Chloé?" Marinette says when they're walking down the corridor, Chloé strutting ahead of her. "If it was anyone other than me…"
"Because you've been a mess all day and Adrikins isn't in class," Chloé says. "I put it together. Something happened to him and you know what, and since he's not answering my texts…"
"He probably doesn't have his phone," Marinette says. She explains what had happened the previous night, all the while wondering why she's confiding in Chloé like they're friends or something, and Chloé doesn't look anywhere near happy by the end of her explanation.
"Cute," Chloé drawls. "You've worried yourself sick over your friend. At least it's not something super serious like I thought."
"Nothing super serious? How can you say that?"
"Because his father's like this all the time. It's not like I'm happy, but at least I know it's not something like having a broken leg or me needing to destroy whoever hurt him or something."
Marinette totally doesn't buy that. "Rubbish! After you let Adrien take the fall for what you did twice, pretending like you care is a total new low for you, Chloé. You don't care about him at all, do you, you just see him as some trophy –"
Chloé's hand shoots out to grab Marinette's wrist and yank her down the next corridor and into the girl's bathroom. "Don't you even dare go there, Dupain-Cheng," Chloé hisses, squeezing Marinette's wrist as the door slams shut behind them. "I'm trying to be nice so that my best friend will talk to me again, so don't you even think of implying that he's just a shiny thing to me. I just…didn't realise how special he was until he stopped talking to me for good. I didn't realise that I was treating him like shit as well as all you peasants since, you know, that's my default."
An awkward silence falls over them. Chloé clears her throat and lets go of Marinette, then deliberately wipes her hand on her jacket. Marinette stares at Chloé with a tilted head.
"Are you really in love with him?" she says. Chloé just sniffs and looks away. "You can tell me, Chloé. I'm the last person who'd go telling everyone your private information."
"You hate me, Dupain-Cheng," Chloé snaps. "I hate you. Forgive me if I don't believe that."
"I don't hate you," Marinette says. "Not since you asked me for help. I've actually been…impressed at how you're really trying to be nice. I don't like you, but I don't hate you. And even if I did hate you, I wouldn't go spreading around anything that you tell me in private."
Chloé stares at her for a long moment, then sighs. "You're, like, the one person I can actually believe wouldn't do that to me," she mutters. "Stupid, goodie-two-shoes Marinette Dupain-Cheng. No, I'm not in love with Adrien, okay? He's like my brother. But I don't want anyone else to get near him."
"Why? If you're really that close, you can't possibly believe that he'd abandon you for someone else, right?"
"He did!" Chloé clenches her fists and stomps her foot. "He left me for – for you! And that Ladyblogger and weird DJ!"
"Only because you were being mean and he knew that he had the power to push you to become a nicer person," Marinette counters.
"Exactly! Now I'm stuck turning myself into some fake, nice, smiley person that I'm not just to get my friend back!"
Marinette's face softens as she regards Chloé, who snarls and looks away, crossing her arms. "Then don't do it for Adrien," Marinette says. "That's what I've been telling you. Find a reason why you want to be nice."
"I don't have a reason! Don't you get it? Why should I want to be nice when I can get everything I want anyway?"
"You didn't end up being class president. You're always getting kidnapped by akumas with a vendetta. No one apart from Sabrina and Adrien likes you, and Sabrina's more of a servant than a friend. Those are three good reasons."
"Whatever, miss perfect know-it-all. Come on, we're supposed to be at the nurse's office."
As Chloé storms for the door, Marinette scrambles for one last line of reasoning as to why Chloé should keep being nice. Finally, as Chloé's pushing the door open, Marinette blurts out, "What about Ladybug?"
Chloé freezes. "What about her?"
"You're her number one fan, right? Well…why not do it so you can be the kind of person Ladybug would love to have as her number one fan?"
"Are you implying that she doesn't see me or want me as her number one fan?" Chloé arches an eyebrow as she turns, letting the door slam shut again. Marinette gulps. Now she has to be careful with how she navigates this, or she'll end up either outing herself or offending Chloé into hating Ladybug again.
"I never said that," Marinette says slowly. "Look, if you truly can't do it for yourself, do it to become a person that Ladybug would be proud of. I know I try every day to strive to be the kind of person that Ladybug would approve of. And once you're in the habit of being nice, who knows? Maybe you'll find that you really do enjoy having people like you and want to do nice things for you because they like you and not because they fear you."
"Hmph." Chloé crosses her arms. "Well, she did totally praise me for being nice and helpful at my party. Whatever. Come on, Dupain-Cheng. You're supposed to be sick."
"You could start being nicer by calling me by my first name," Marinette says as she follows Chloé out of the bathroom. Chloé snorts.
"Over my dead body, Dupain-Cheng."